Okonjo-Iweala: FG Lacks Funds to Meet ASUU Demands

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has disclosed that the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may not be met as the federal government lacks the resources to meet them. This came as indications emerged yesterday that the ongoing strike by ASUU will still linger as both the federal government and the union again failed to reach an agreement in their latest meeting.

However, following the discussions with the striking  lecturers yesterday, the federal government's Needs Assessment Implementation Committee has agreed to release N100 billion for the provision and upgrade of infrastructure in the 61 public universities identified in the Needs Assessment Report.

According to Okonjo-Iweala, who made this known in Minna, the Niger State capital yesterday in a speech at the opening of a two-day meeting of Commissioners of Finance and Accountants-General of states Ministries of Finance, said ASUU's demands did not fall within the reach of the federal government. She added that there were a lot of things competing for the resources of the government.

"At present, ASUU wants government to pay N92 billion in extra allowances when the resources are not there and when we are working to integrate past increases in pension.

"We need to make choices in this country as we are getting to a stage where recurrent expenditures take the bulk of our resources and people get paid but can do no work.

"At the federal level and in most states, our budgets consist mostly of recurrent expenditures, yet, we continue to have demands for more recurrent spending," she said.

The minister further said recurrent expenditures accounts for about 77.2 per cent of the total budget, adding that the Ministry of Finance was working to re-balance the ratio and improve the budget formulation process.

She stated that public financial management systems needed to be improved from manual and paper based systems to the 21st century technology, stressing that manual and paper based processes created room for leakages and, therefore, led to inefficiencies in cash management.